At least nine prisoners and guards were killed in a gun battle at a Baghdad high-security jail on Wednesday after detained guerrilla suspects, some of them foreign, grabbed weapons and tried to flee, officials said.
One Iraqi inmate snatched a Kalashnikov rifle from a guard as a handful of high-risk prisoners were taken out at dawn to clean the yard, a guard from the site told Reuters. After raiding the prison armoury, the group freed more comrades but US and Iraqi troops based around the jail quelled the revolt.
Five staff and four inmates were killed and five prisoners and a US soldier were wounded, the US military said, denying assertions by police, including an Interior Ministry general, that the death toll was at least 20 among the detainees, who include some of the most violent of Iraq's insurgents.
A Russian, a Tunisian and a Saudi were among those who fought.
In other violence, rebels ambushed an Iraqi army patrol near Dujail, 60 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, late on Tuesday, killing two soldiers and wounding seven, police said.
Serious attacks have increased in the past week following a lull around the December 15 election, when some rebels from the once dominant Sunni Arab minority observed an informal truce to encourage their community to vote for the first time and stake a share in the new parliament. Some Sunni politicians have warned that anger at results they allege are forged and which confirmed the dominant position of Shia Islamists could prompt more attacks, not just by the al Qaeda-linked Islamists bent on wrecking the US-backed political process but also by Sunni groups that backed the vote.
The Electoral Commission, assailed by protests over the past week, produced a UN official at its daily news conference on Wednesday to insist the ballot was fair and that the Commission would study complaints.
Commission chief Hussein Hindawi said a few ballot boxes out of more than 30,000 might be ruled invalid but that this would not affect the overall result.
The Iraqi Islamic Party, driving force behind the main Sunni electoral bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, issued a statement condemning the past week's violence.
"At the time when many political groups are preparing to end the political crisis through flexibility and patience and insight, a new wave of violence has surged through Baghdad and Diyala," the party said. "The party condemns these acts and calls all sides to be patient and to act responsibly."
Up to 3,000 people marched under Accordance Front banners in protest at the election result in the northern Sunni Arab city of Samarra on Wednesday, police said.
PRISON BLOODSHED: Officials put the number of prisoners at the Kadhimiya maximum security jail at over 200. It lies inside the sprawling Adala military base, known to Americans as Camp Justice and once used by Saddam Hussein's secret police.
The US military said: "Sixteen prisoners attempted to escape the facility after first storming the armoury."
The Justice Ministry prison guard told Reuters: "At 6:30 am, five prisoners were taken out to clean the yards. "When the officer was trying to shackle their legs to stop them from escaping, one of them pushed the officer aside and another attacked the guard standing nearby and took his gun. Then he shot the officer dead and wounded the guard."
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